WILDLIFE REPORT
SINGITA GRUMETI, TANZANIA
For the month of June, Two Thousand and Sixteen
As you may have picked up from last month’s journal, the “greatest wildlife spectacle on earth” showed up
on Grumeti towards the end of the month. The game viewing in June was dominated by the hundreds of
thousands of wildebeest and their antics, as well as their interactions with all the predators, scavengers and
other species that have to share their space.
As it goes with the great migration, there is a lot of noise, dust and general mayhem, but it also stirs up a lot
of excitement in everyone, guests, guides and staff alike.
As the month of June progressed, more and more of the wildebeest that entered Grumeti from the east
filtered further and further west. For a solid two weeks this continued. Sasakwa Dam as usual, hosted a lot
of action with one of the Butamtam Pride splinter groups holding fort around the very active waterhole and
surrounds.
After almost exactly a month of their presence, we noticed a 180⁰ shift in their movement. From one day to
the next it changed. Yesterday they were moving west, today they are facing east. Over a matter of four or
five days columns of them filtered off of the property and then they were all but gone.
Lions
Obviously with all the wildebeest migration around we experienced a lot of lion activity. There were
multiple daily sightings of lions across the entire property.
(photo by Anthony Nyambacha)
All in all we had multiple daily sightings of Africa’s apex predators and that topped out at 96 sightings for
the month.
Cheetah
The mother cheetah with the three young cubs has been the staple of our cheetah sightings this month.
There was also a number of strange cheetah that chose to visit, albeit briefly. We had one sighting of a
nervous female that popped in along the park boundary west of Sabora before she took off, never to be
seen again.
Another individual that was foreign to us was a fully grown but mangy looking male. He was seen on more
than one occasion. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was mangy, he would have been an impressive individual.
We hope that by now he has started to make a recovery.
For the month of June we totalled 31 sightings of the African speedsters.
Leopards
Even though we had one particularly long spell of 7 days where no one could find a leopard we still ended
the month with 24 sightings. This included 2 consecutive days where we had 5 sightings of seven
leopards…yes, you read that correctly SEVEN leopards!
This for me is a truly great indication of the 13 years of hard work, behind the scenes, that has gone into
making the Grumeti Game Reserve such a spectacular wildlife area. Five or six years ago, one would never
have thought that a day like this would even be possible.
Wild dogs
For the first time since the dogs have been set free in the vicinity of the Grumeti Game Reserve we
managed to have regular viewing of them. The migration convinced them to come out and show us what
they are made of. We had 15 action packed sightings of them during June.
Elephant
The start of June was very productive with elephant sightings, but as the month and wildebeest movement
progressed elephant sightings became fewer and fewer.
At one point it was all the guides could think and talk about. It’s not very often that you hear guides
pleading on the radio that if anyone sees an elephant to please call it in.
Elephant seem to dislike the chaos that comes with the migration and they definitely become scarce when
the herds move in. With the departure of the migratory animals in the latter portion of June, we noticed
the families of elephants returning, much to everyone’s delight and many a guides’ relief.
News from the front lions
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first…
It seems that whenever I get to write these journals I feel like I end up having to report on the unfortunate
loss of life…such is the way of the wild I guess.
So…here I go again. Sadly, the four cubs that we have been viewing recently were found killed at Sasakwa
dam early one morning. The mother was seen in the immediate vicinity, roaring and calling for her fallen
cubs so we couldn’t get a chance to get out and walk around to establish what had taken place. Once the
lioness had moved off the vultures and even a monitor lizard settled in to scavenge off of the lion cubs
carcasses.
We can only surmise that a herd of buffalo (which were seen close by) had moved to the dam to have a
drink and had come across the cubs that were hidden in a thicket. The buffalo would have become
incensed by the smell and presence of the cubs and in their rage would have trampled and gored the cubs
to death. It may seem wasteful and no doubt it is sad, but nature has its ways of ensuring there is balance…
it doesn’t do much regarding harmony however!!
On the up side though, there are two sets of new cubs to be seen. Two females from the Ridge Pride were
mating with the young males from the Butamtam Pride a few months ago. This has resulted in the females
having given birth. The one litter consists of three, three month old cubs, and the second litter has two, two
month old cubs.
Wild dog action
As mentioned before, we got to see quite a bit of the wild dogs this month. With the abundance of
potential food around they were very active. If the dogs hadn’t managed to get a meal in the early morning,
you could wait it out and watch them attempt again in the late afternoon. It was almost like the dogs were
watching a clock.
At almost 6pm they would start moving around have a quick stretch and then head off in the direction of
the closest herd. If you watch closely enough, you can see the intent as the dogs heads droop and their ears
flatten against their bodies as they move closer and closer to the herd.
As soon as they are within striking distance they all launch at the herd, creating pandemonium and mass
confusion. This is actually a very shrewd plan they employ. The idea is to run into a herd of wildebeest (in
this case) and then try and identify a weakling within the group, if there isn’t a weakling, they move on to
the next herd.
The time I watched this process, it was the third herd they ran into, and they got what they were looking
for. A two year old wildebeest with a severely damaged leg became the source of their complete attention.
After a short, fast chase through the herd of wildebeest and across the dusty plains they caught up to the
hapless calf. From the moment they took hold of the calf it was a matter of seconds before it was all over.
Still on the subject of the wild dogs - but on a much lighter and far more positive note, they have puppies!!
The Singita Grumeti Fund is funding the Serengeti Wild Dog Project and they were asked by the Tanzanian
Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) to assist them by installing a camera trap at the wild dogs den site.
They had known that one of the females had given birth but hadn’t seen the puppies. On the day we went
out to go and install the camera trap the dogs were away from the den but that wasn’t the case for very
long. We never got to install the camera trap but what we did get was an amazing treat. As the pack came
running back to the den site there was a lot of commotion and then it happened, 6 puppies came out of
hiding to beg for food from the adults.
The adults regurgitated chunks of meat for the puppies to consume and we just sat there and watched in
awe.
Eventually the approximately 6-8 week old pups came right out into the open, not at all perturbed by the
fact that there was a strange looking, smelly vehicle close by.
We continued to watch until mother wild dog decided it was time to go back into the den. All in all it was a
magnificent privilege to be at the den site to witness these youngsters. We hope that they stick around for
some time because they really do add another dimension to the already amazing wildlife viewing here.
By Ryan Schmitt
Singita Grumeti
Serengeti
Tanzania
Thirtieth of June 2016